PROPCAFE Review : Shamelin Star SoHo Residences @ Taman Shamelin By Landmark Zone

 

Shamelin Star SoHo Residences – The New Shinning Star Among the Meteors

“Shining Star among the Meteors” – This phrase was actually came from one of my friend and indeed a good one to describe this project prematurely. It did give me a little spark on how I shall begin my “typing”. So I am going to borrow this line for this one. Shall this “phrase” end with a period or question mark; I will leave it to you.

LEASEHOLD. Yes it is a leasehold. Beside “how much?”, one of the most frequent asked question  –  “Freehold or Leasehold?”  So reading until here, it is at your own discreet judgment whether you still want to continue or end here.

Yes, … the next most frequent asked question, “where is the location?”. The answer for this question will cover quite a major portion of this review since one of the main purposes of this review is to introduce this area which is totally stranger to some readers here. It is unusual for me to disclose the price of this project at this early stage so please bear with me. Not that I know it.

By the way, just in case if you are still reading… the name of this project is called “Shamelin Star” .

Shamelin Star as the name already suggested is located at Taman Shamelin Perkasa.

According to the brochure, the exact GPS location of SS is N 3° 07’ 33.4” E 101° 44’ 11.0”.

Taman Shamelin Perkasa –  Also known as Taman Shamelin is located in Klang Valley sandwiched in between of Taman Pudu Ulu, Taman Maluri, Pandan Indah and Pandan Perdana.

Taman Shamelin Perkasa is approximately at the radius of 3.7km from Pavilion @ Bukit Bintang and radius of 4.4km from KLCC. Indirectly, this means that SS is located pretty close to the so called “Center of Gravity” with less than 5km radius.

Taman Shamelin currently can be access via MRR2, Jalan Pandan Indah or Jalan Cheras. According to Besraya Extension which is currently under construction, there will be an interchange at Shamelin as well. If the Shamelin Expressway is materialized, this is definitely good news to the Shamelin folks. Details can refer to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shamelin_Expressway and http://www.ijm.com/infrastructure/toll/besraya/map.asp

This 135 acre piece of land at “Cheras” was acquired for mixed residential, commercial and industrial development purpose by a company named SHAMELIN also known as Koperasi Shamelin Berhad (KSB) in the early ’80s. At the beginning, the property development business was taking off quite well and smooth, but in the mid of 80s, it began to have some problem and this development project was abandoned. Following with other business which they were engaging also facing problems, Shamelin was at the verge of bankruptcy. For more details of KSB , you can visit their site www.shamelin.com

Perhaps this could be the reason why Taman Shamelin’s commercial did not fly well as compared to Taman Maluri despite only separated just by the river of Sungai Kerayong. To be frank, I don’t really know much of Taman Shamelin , nothing really  fancy me over there. The only few times I went to this part of world is to the Pos Malaysia Cawangan Serahan Jalan Cheras to collect my parcel. Those undelivered parcel for Cheras area, usually will be parked at this post office for collection. The other occasion to Taman Shamelin was to get my bespoke suit.

Surprisingly to my notice, most of the shops here are used as a “closed” shop operation. Not much of into open door retail business. Most of the shops here are either used as an operational office or light industrial commercial. As far as I know, there is quite a number of clothing or garments factory/office here such as Wardrobe, Sparkmanshop, Depi and Orlando.

Other than these few rows of quite rundown shop lots, there are also few light-medium size industrial factories nearby. Well, please do not expect this area to have the same vibrancy and environment of Mutiara Damansara. This place is pretty quiet and the environment is not so appealing. The old run down shop lots around Shamelin Star does give you a cold shiver down to your spine.

You really cannot expect much from an area where lack of retail commercial and mostly for industrial business operation. If you are expecting Mount Kiara or Beverly Hills environment, save your petrol mate.

 

So what make this Shamelin Star having the chance to be sustainable in long term despite sitting on this dull area? The key is the recent completed Shamelin–Maluri viaduct where connecting Shamelin to Maluri.

 

This viaduct  is connecting Jalan 4/91 of Shamelin to the intersection of Jalan Jejaka and Jalan Mahkota of Taman Maluri. The best part is this link bridge is located right in front of SS. Having this link is vital for Shamelin Star because it does really cut the distance and time needed to travel from Shamelin to Taman Maluri without needed to go through the notorious Jalan Cheras.

 

Why Taman Maluri? At Taman Maluri Commercial area, I believe this area able to serve if not all then most of the daily needs such as banks (Maybank, CIMB, Alliance, Public Bank), Kopitiam, Clinics, Hotel Maluri, restaurant, 7-11 , not to mention AEON Jusco Taman Maluri  and etc at merely less than 500m from Shamelin Star to this juncture of Taman Maluri’s commercial center. The average price of shops at Taman Maluri is around 7 figures and this will at least give you some scale indication of the vibrancy of this part of world. Someone told me before how wrong could it be when Jaya Jusco Taman Maluri  is nearby?

Take a drive there and see it yourself!

Personally if I am looking for a home, I would not want my place to be located at a too vibrant and congested area with cars and high human traffic. If I were to be given a choice, I would like to have both of the worlds, balance of “peaceful” and “convenience”. My definition of balance here is calm and quiet surrounding yet at the same time “convenience” is within arm length.

The Influence of Surrounding – What are the other key components surrounding Shamelin Star? Take a look on the below picture…

 

Needless to say more, I guess the picture above tell everything. I will not go into details of each component as such it will become boring. But one thing I would like to highlight here is the availability of the public schools nearby, being not too far from the future of the MRT Exchange and smacked in between of two current LRT stations, a lavish 61 acre park right across the main road in front of Shamelin Star and with the presence of one of the Sunway Group’s megaproject – Sunway Velocity nearby; these all factors definitely add additional “oomph” to whatever you are sipping now be it  Coffee or Teh Tarik.

When there is LRT station nearby, the question of whether is walk able will be arises. I am not going to say whether is “walkable” or not since it is very subjective but I am much interested to find out the actual distance and the experience of the journey to the LRT station in person and see what I can discover along the journey.

Following the path above to Pandan Jaya LRT station, the recorded time and distance was 10 mins and 780m with an average walking speed of 4.5km/h. On the way, it is worth to note that there is a covered walk way starting from the junction of Jalan 1/91 and Jalan 6/91. Furthermore, on this stretch of road is where Poly-Tech Mara and University Kuala Lumpur located as well.

Below is picture of access to the Pandan Jaya LRT station from Shamelin.

 

IMHO, 780m distance with 10 mins walking distance is merely acceptable but it still requires quite an effort to walk there at least  for old man like me.

So is there any shorter alternative? It will be very much depending on Shamelin Star whether will there be any second entrance point of Shamelin Star. IF there is another entrance point at the rear side of Shamelin Star as per picture below, then the distance to the LRT station from this alternative entrance point will be approximately 550m-600m and walking from this rear entrance of Shamelin Star to LRT is much more “walk able” compared to using the front entrance of Shamelin Star. Well… if there is one…

 

 

Let’s have a look on what is in front and rear of Shamelin Star. …

The only thing which I would like to comment is the road in front of Shamelin Star entrance is a single way lane. This means that future residents of Shamelin Star have to make another loop if they missed the junction turning in from the main road to the road in front of Shamelin Star entrance. If you look at the other side of the coin, with single flow traffic is always smoother compared to two way traffic at the dispense of convenience just like the saying “There is no turning back”.

 

On the rear side of Shamelin Star nothing much of any pleasant sight. Factories and “Gerai – gerai makan”    (Hawker stalls) nearby and again here is also single way lane. Not sure whether this gerai-gerai is operating during evening/night and whether walking from here at night time will be a comfortable walk or not. But like I say, I have not tried to scout this area at night time so I cannot tell much. Please bear in mind, this path will be your nearest distance to Pandan Jaya LRT station if SS going  to realize this rear entrance of Shamelin Star. Whether you like it or not, for those who commute daily by LRT this will be your daily route.

Until here with all those not so pleasant sights and pictures, allow me now to bring you to the opposite side. It is always good to let you see the hell first and then bring you to see the “Heaven”.

 

The park!

What else I can say more! Right in front of Shamelin Star entrance across the main road is the 61 acre Pudu Ulu Park. The land has been gazetted as a park area and no development will be allowed on it which means unblock view! The park was designed with the patterns of the hibiscus as the central theme. Hibiscus motifs are heavily present in terms of decor as well as layout of the park.

The park is very well equipped with up-to-date facilities, including toilets for the disabled, surau, dustbins, drinking water tap, a playground, jogging tracks, reflexology paths, centralised parking lots, bicycle tracks, parking lots for bicycles, football field, multi-purpose courts, and a sculpture garden.

Such a big park is very rare within 5km from the city centre. Those who appreciate greenery and outdoor activity will know how to appreciate this! Maintaining healthy lifestyle throughout your age is vital to keep you fit mentally and physically, one of the most economic way to maintain your fitness is to have a morning jog or have a simple workout around the park , forget about those costly air-conditioned high tech gym.

Best of the best, this park is FOC!  You want a run? Well, just go across, and you can run. Forget about the iPad!  On the weekends bring your kids and let them get in touch with the nature. This moment is priceless.

Other than the park, how about the KLCC view from the Shamelin Star? With standing on the 37 floor high building, if unblocked, will you get such a view as below picture?

Okey, it time  for me to wrap up my 1^st part of review of Shamelin Star.

“Will Shamelin Star be the new shining star among the meteors? I will leave the answer to you. To be honest, it is quite difficult for me to give the answer now. Instead I am far more interested to know “Would Shamelin Star able to sustain its shine? Or over time,  will Shamelin Star become the fallen abandoned star just like its neighbor?

For the Part 1 review, there is an executive summary with lesser words especially  f or those Big Boss and Tycoons who do not have much time to read.

From the info heard, showroom and sales gallery will be ready somewhere in April… somehow do watch out for the surprises

My next post will cover more on the developer’s background, master plan, showroom, room layout, design, package, freebies and intrinsic value of Shamelin Star and if possible the price tag as well. As of now all I can tell the master plan,  room size and layout is really pretty interesting!

Before I end here, according to Chili Source the architect for Shamelin Star is DMP Architect Sdn Bhd  which previous they did it for the high end Marc Residence and Hamsphire Residence KLCC but little bird told us that the facade has been revised and the archi’s website is showing old facade of Shamelin Star. Perhaps this info might be interesting to you!

So stay tuned …..

Some teaser about the project :

Project Name : Shamelin Star SoHo-Residences
Developer : Landmark Zone Sdn  Bhd (Company No. 857848-V) (“LZSB” or “the Developer”)
Type of Project : Mixed Development

Size of Project : Approximately 3 acres
Tenure : Leasehold (99 years)
Type of Development : Two blocks of 37 storey oOHo-Residences with retails at ground floor

Development :

1) Retail lots located at ground floor Components

2) Car park – Underground (Non-Resident) , 1st – 6th Floor (Resident)

3) SoHo-Residences located from 7th – 36th floor

Land

The Land comprises of two parcels of non-contiguous land (separated by a road) measuring in aggregate approximately 2.36 acres held under PN 31207 Lot No. 11749 and PN 31208 Lot 11750, both in the Mukim of Ampang, Daerah of Kuala Lumpur, held under leasehold titles expiring on 11 September 2082.

Lot 11749, measuring approximately 1.45 acres, has been approved for commercial development while Lot 11750, measuring approximately 0.91 acres has been approved for use as a car park.

The parties intend to acquire certain parcels of leasehold land contiguous with and adjoining the Land measuring in aggregate approximately 0.64 acre, and to amalgamate the same with the Land, with the amalgamated land (“the JV Land”) measuring approximately 3.0 acres in aggregate.

So stay tuned …..

p/s for any discussion for this project, you are welcome to leave a comment at this site or discuss at the forum.propcafe.net

Thanks!